Currence uses rare split-day schedule of conference meet to set 800 school record

Occasionally, a bit of a wait can pay off in a big way.

Platte County senior Connor Currence took advantage of a rare opportunity to fully recharge and take a full run at a coveted school record. He claimed the individual title in the 800-meter race Friday during a split Suburban Conference White Division Championships meet held over a span of four days at Pirate Stadium.

Originally moved up a day to Tuesday to try and avoid inclement weather, lightning intervened late that day and postponed the final events to Friday evening.

Currence ran the 800 near the beginning of Friday’s restart and finished in 1 minute, 55.59 seconds to beat Grain Valley senior Rylan Smith by nearly 2 full seconds. That improved Currence’s career-best time by 2 1/2 seconds and finally toppled Keegan Cordova’s school record mark of 1:57.04 set in 2019.

“It was out of our control so we had to wait until today,” Currence said. “Today was the day — great, beautiful day, no wind. It was amazing just get that record.”

Behind Currence’s record-breaking performance and a near sweep of the four relays, Platte County also claimed the team title with 138 1/2 points. Grain Valley came in second with 105 1/2. This marks the Pirates’ first White Division crown and first conference title since winning the Blue Division in 2021.

Currence emerged as a top talent in his first year on Platte County’s track team as a sophomore when he won the 800 and 1,600 conference titles. However, his events list changed after missing most of his junior season due to a stress fracture in his foot and returning with a focus on middle distances.

In addition to the 800 and 4×800 relay, Currence rejoined Platte County’s 4×400 this spring on a unit expecting to return 3 of 4 members from last year’s school-record-setting quartet that advanced to the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships. The Pirates used Currence, juniors Josh Fraker and Brayden Eschliman plus freshman Jack Johnson in Friday’s finale and easily ran to first place in 3:22.55 — only about a second off the fastest mark set last year in the Class 5 Sectional 4 meet.

Fraker and Eschliman were on that mark with sophomore Jackson Goodale, who missed the start of this season and made his 2024 debut run in Tuesday’s conference 400 with a chance to contribute more in this weekend’s Class 5 District 8 meet at Liberty High School.

Platte County’s long-distance lineup continues to show depth with senior Andrew Johnson (1:59.04) and sophomore Blake Herron (2:02.99) finishing third and fourth in Friday’s 800 race. Johnson also swept the top spots in the 1,600 (4:32.77) and 3,200 (9:28.79) with no competition pushing him to challenge the school records he set in those events earlier this season.

In addition, Platte County senior Kade Meinke came in second in the 3,200 (9:36.99) and third in the 1,600 (4:35.51). The 3,200 time marked a career-best for him.

Platte County also ran a top group in the 4×800, but Andrew Johnson, Meinke, Currence and Fraker coasted to first in 8:49.29. The effort came in Tuesday’s opening race with runners ostensibly using the opportunity to save energy for individual events, some of which ended up pushed back three days until the five teams could reconvene.

Grain Valley finished second in 9:01.80.

Platte County also saw Jack Johnson (110 hurdles, 15.64) and sophomore Braiden Stevens (100, 10.89) earn individual conference titles. Stevens became just the fourth runner in school history to run under 11 seconds while setting his PR in the shortest sprint race and now sits tied for ninth all-time according to available records.

In addition to the 110 hurdles title, Jack Johnson also came in second in the 300 hurdles with a PR of 41.17. Platte County junior Isaiah Seymour added a third-place finish in the 110 hurdles race at 16.33, also a PR and lowering his season-best by a full quarter of a second.

Platte County scored big points in the 400 with Fraker second at 51.64 (season-best), Goodale third in his first race of the season (53.31) and Eschliman fourth (53.63).

In addition to the 4×400 performance, the first-place 4×100 team of Stevens, Ty Christopher, Adam Gisler and Adeboye Akande — all sophomores — set a season-best at 43.36 to finish first, while the 4×200 of Eschliman, Stevens, Christopher and senior Savion Jones also turned in 2024’s fastest time at 1:31.21 but came in second to Raytown.

Platte County didn’t have any field even titles, but senior Gage Fulk (career-best 14.56 meters, shot put) and junior Gus Keeton (42.92 meters, discus) both posted runnerup showings. The Pirates’ third-place finishes included senior Kevin Taylor (3.81 meters, pole vault) and sophomore Drew Tyson (1.7 meters, high jump).